


I'm Cold

by tripleyeeet



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, College!SpencerReid, F/M, Fluff, Meet-Cute, Spencer Reid Fluff, just a whole lot of fluff bois
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:41:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27836215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tripleyeeet/pseuds/tripleyeeet
Summary: After receiving his number from a mutual friend, Reader asks Spencer to help them with their Psychology homework.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader
Comments: 3
Kudos: 66





	I'm Cold

“Hey, are you any good at Psych?” You glanced across the table at Ethan who immediately laughed and shook his head, causing you to frown in response.

Ever since the beginning of the semester you regretted taking Psychology. Like most people, you figured it’d be a relatively easy course; giving you the opportunity to raise your overall GPA, which in turn would result in more scholarship money.

However, also like most people, you quickly figured out that wasn’t the case. It was nothing like the class you remembered taking in high school, which you knew you should’ve realized, because after all, you were in college now. You weren’t supposed to be taking classes for easy A’s. You were supposed to be taking them to learn.

Which unfortunately was the opposite of what you were now doing. For some odd reason, no matter how hard you tried, you just couldn’t retain the right kind of information to do well as well as you wanted to, causing your grade to quickly plummet below passing level.

“Do you know anyone that _is_ good at it?” You quickly added, raising your brow. You figured if anyone knew someone, it’d be Ethan, because unlike you he was quite the social butterfly.

He narrowed his eyes, taking a minute to process the weight of the question before inevitably pulling out his cellphone and scanning the screen. As he did, you looked at him confused, wondering what exactly he was doing, until eventually he nodded to himself and looked back up at you. “Spencer Reid,” he replied simply, handing you the device.

On the screen was a photo of Ethan, smiling wide next to the elusive Spencer Reid who was partially covering his face in embarrassment. They were sitting together in the library and by the looks of it Spencer definitely didn’t want to have his photo taken.

“Who’s that?”

“A friend from bio,” Ethan replied with a grin. “He’s strange, but cute and extremely smart. He’s our age and he’s already got like two degrees.”

You shot Ethan a surprised look, shaking your head as you glanced between him and the phone. For a nerd, you agreed, he looked pretty cute. His hair was longer than you personally preferred, tucked behind the base of his ears to reveal a set of perfectly structured cheekbones and soft, pale skin.

You swallowed hard at the sight, feeling your stomach twist slightly as you looked up at Ethan who was smirking at you. “Like what you see?”

Almost immediately you rolled your eyes and placed the phone onto the table face down. It was embarrassing to admit, but you kind of did, because aside from the hair, he was definitely your type. At least what you could see of him, that is.

“Do you think he’ll help me or not?” You countered, hoping he wouldn’t question the subject change.

“Definitely. Spencer thrives on homework,” Ethan laughed. “This one time I asked if he’d help me with my paper and he practically did the entire thing for me. He _loves_ helping.”

“Sounds like my kind of guy,” you retorted.

“ _Oh, he sure is_.” Ethan wiggled his brows suggestively as he reached for his phone, giving the screen a few taps before inevitably re-pocketing it and looking back up at you. “I sent you his number. Feel free to do with it what you will.”

* * *

You ended up composing a message as soon as you stepped into your dorm, barely even moving away from the door as you pulled out your phone and began drafting the perfect message.

From the moment Ethan had given you Spencer’s number a part of you had been wary of making contact. Something about the idea of texting a total stranger to ask for help on your homework seemed fairly embarrassing, despite Ethan repeatedly telling you otherwise. The last thing you wanted to do was make him feel uncomfortable.

From her bed, your roommate Anna stared at you curiously, watching as you absentmindedly kicked off your shoes and wandered over to your bed, still typing away. On more than one occasion she’d seen you like this before, entranced by whatever was on the receiving end of your text messages.

It immediately made her smirk, because you were the kind of person who was easy to read. Every emotion you felt translated perfectly through your behaviour, which made the fact that you were interested in whoever you were texting rather obvious. 

Oblivious to this however, you sat on the edge of your mattress and brought your thumbnail to your mouth, taking the end of it between your teeth as you carefully read the message in your hand over and over again.

“Who are you texting?”

You looked up and blinked, noticing the familiar smirk plastered Anna’s face. It was the same one that Ethan had given you just hours before and although you weren’t surprised to see it, you were however, annoyed.

“Nobody.”

She raised her brow and shuffled to the edge of her bed, still staring as you looked back at your phone and took a deep breath. “Yeah, _okay_ ,” she said sarcastically.

“I'm serious, he’s nobody!” You quickly replied, throwing your arms out dramatically. As soon as you said it though you pressed your lips together tightly, regretting your use of the word _he_.

“Ah, so he _is_ a he. Interesting,” Anna mused. “Does he have a name?”

“No,” you replied flatly, once again staring at the screen in your hand. 

“His name is no or no he doesn’t have a name?”

“ _No_.”

Anna then let out a heavy sigh and quickly shuffled across the room, snatching your phone out of your hand before you could even register that she’d even got up in the first place. “Spencer Reid,” she cooed, turning to face you as she moved her thumb across the screen with another smirk. “Sounds like a huge nerd!”

After that you stood up abruptly, reaching to grab your phone right as she tossed it into her other hand and blocked you. As she did, she laughed, watching as you struggled to grab it, pouting the entire time. “Give it back, asshole!” You called out, slightly laughing to yourself as she eventually rolled her eyes and gave in, placing it back into your open palm.

“You shouldn’t call people names,” she then said, giving you a fake, stern look. “It’s rude.”

“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t steal people’s phones either.” You stuck out your tongue and moved back to your bed, this time launching yourself completely onto it.

“So, who is he?”

As you moved to get comfortable you glanced over at Anna and shrugged your shoulders, watching as she gave you a confused look. “He’s a sort of friend of Ethan’s. I asked him for help with my homework, but instead of actually doing that he gave me this random guy’s number,” you explained, raising your phone in the air.

When you did you felt it vibrate in your grasp, causing you to narrow your eyes and refocus your attention. You turned it over in your palm and pressed the message notification near the bottom of the screen, immediately feeling your stomach drop once you saw that he’d already responded.

You quickly sat up, blinking nonstop until you glanced up at Anna who looked like she was holding back laughter. At that point it clicked that she’d already sent your message, which immediately made you both thankful, because it meant you didn’t have time to overthink it, and angry, because part of you was still debating on ditching the whole idea.

“I actually hate you.”

She opened her mouth in fake offence, placing her hand over her chest as she watched you roll your eyes. “You don’t mean that.”

As much as you wanted to tell her that you did, you opted to ignore her and instead focus on the message in front of you. It was simple —to the point and overly polite and despite knowing there was no emotional attachment behind it you still found yourself analyzing every single word.

_Hey Y/N. I’d love to help you with your Psychology project! I’m free tomorrow and Saturday night if either of those days work for you. If not, I’m sure we could figure something out._

“What’d he say?”

After about the fifth reread you looked up at Anna, shooting her a grumpy look. “None of your business, you jerk.”

* * *

You ended up agreeing to meet Spencer on the Saturday, which left you feeling anxious for the rest of the week. You weren’t sure why, but the idea of meeting up with him was absolutely nerve-racking, even if he was a friend of a friend. 

In fact, you couldn’t stop thinking about it, especially during Psychology, which unfortunately didn’t help your already suffering grade. During almost every lecture you found your mind wandering towards the thought of him, wondering how he was feeling about all this. 

It was a thought that immediately made you feel stupid, because honestly he probably wasn’t _feeling_ anything. The thought of you had probably never even crossed his mind, especially considering how busy he most likely was. 

Because according to Ethan, he was a certifiable genius, which was probably why he was meeting you in the first place. Like most extracurriculars, tutoring was a good thing to throw on a resume, especially if it related to his desired field. 

You ended up thinking about it the entire way to the library, wondering how he’d react to your presence. Secretly, you hoped he wouldn’t have any expectations of you, because you were more than certain you wouldn’t live up to them. You weren’t as academically inclined as he was. Nor were you as social as Ethan. If anything, you were just a regular person trying to make it through the semester without failing a class.

When you finally got to the library you found yourself more nervous than usual. Awkwardly, you wiped the sweat off your palms against the side of your jeans as you walked through the main area, glancing at the various study tables littered throughout the room. 

Saturday nights were usually pretty dead, which made you somewhat thankful, because not long into your search you ended up spotting him near the back. He was sitting in the most back-braking position you’d ever seen, nose deep in some oversized textbook. 

For some odd reason the sight made you laugh, which in turn somehow managed to settle your nerves, causing you to walk over more confidently than you intended. When you got to his table you quietly cleared your throat, watching as he glanced up at you and smiled. 

The first thing you noticed was his eyes —how gold they looked. You immediately swallowed hard, feeling your heartbeat begin to quicken as you smiled back and tore off your backpack, tossing it onto the table. 

“Hey, uh, thanks for, uh, agreeing to help me,” you stuttered, moving to sit down. 

“No problem,” he replied. He closed the book in front of him and pushed it aside before grabbing another one from the bag that was slung across the back of his chair. “When you said that Ethan gave you my number I kind of laughed, because he’s been doing that a lot lately.” 

You scrunched up your face, half in confusion, half in amusement as you watched him place the new textbook in front of him and flip through the pages. “What? Give your phone number to dumb students in need?”

“No. _Girls_ ,” he retorted simply. 

You pressed your lips together tightly and nodded, watching as he eventually found the page he was searching for and looked up. You weren’t sure why, but his comment made you feel weird, like somehow you’d been roped into something much bigger than just studying. 

“So, uh, according to the syllabus you’re learning about the biological basis of behaviour, right?”

You nodded again, opting to remain silent in fear of looking stupid.

“Can you tell me what it is?”

Almost immediately you realized that looking stupid was most likely an inevitable circumstance, so instead of responding you just shook your head, watching as he looked at you softly. 

“Okay, well, basically, to sum it up, all human and animal behaviour is a product of biological structures and processes that are highly organized on multiple interconnected levels…”

* * *

Spencer talked continuously for about three hours, while you took notes. Surprisingly, despite typically hating the format of lectures and note talking you found yourself enthralled by the tone of his voice. Almost everything he said somehow made perfect sense and even when it didn’t you found yourself asking questions, causing him to pause his tangents to get you back on track. 

By the time you were done you were actually feeling slightly disappointed. Never in your life had you experienced the want to learn, which made watching Spencer pack up his things that much more sad. You wanted to sit and talk longer, even if it was about things like biopsychological research or the hierarchical structure of the nervous system. 

“I hope you didn’t mind my rambling,” he said, pulling you from your thoughts. As he spoke, he shoved a pair of textbooks into his bag before closing it up and throwing it over his shoulder. “I tend to go off track sometimes when I’m focused.” 

You threw on your bag too, smiling wide as you shook your head. “No, no, it’s cool. I, uh, kind of liked it —made it less boring.” 

Which was true. The lack of obvious structure in his words made the topic of conversation that much more interesting. It wasn’t anything like how your professor taught, which made you wonder if maybe _that_ was the reason you were doing so badly. Maybe you just didn’t vibe well with him. 

_Or maybe you just vibed well with Spencer._

After that, without even discussing it the two of you began to walk out of the library. Side by side you moved through the half empty space, both of you remaining silent as Spencer pushed the door and held it open for you. You smiled warmly at him as you passed, gripping the straps of your backpack as you watched him release it once you were out of the way. 

“Thanks again for agreeing to help,” you eventually found yourself saying, still moving forward.

He moved back to your side, bobbing his head happily as he tucked a stray piece of hair behind his ear. “Again, no problem. I actually really enjoy getting the opportunity to help other people learn about subjects I’m passionate about.” 

“I mean, you _are_ really good at it,” you pointed out. “Honestly, I learned more from you in three hours than from my professor in three weeks.”

“Really?” 

You looked over and nodded, noticing the sudden flash of redness that coated Spencer’s cheeks. “Yeah, seriously. If you haven’t, you should really consider becoming a teacher.” 

Spencer instantly looked at the ground, a smile slowly forming across his lips as he kicked away a stray pebble in front of his feet. The sound of it hopping across the pavement made you eerily aware of how quiet it was around the two of you, causing a shiver to run up your spine.

“Cold?”

“Hm?” You weren’t sure why the question confused you, but it did and as you looked up to meet Spencer’s gaze you noticed him staring. 

Except as soon as he noticed that you noticed he quickly looked away and cleared his throat. “I, uh I —are you cold?” 

“No.”

He furrowed his brow at your answer, which immediately told you that you should’ve said yes, because if you had said yes than maybe he would’ve given you the fuzzy cardigan he was wearing, which would of been really cute and—

The sound of laughing interrupted you from your train of thought, causing you to raise your brow. “What?”

“Do you know what a meet cute is?” 

You shook your head. 

“Basically it’s a scene where two people who will form a future romantic relationship meet for the first time under unusual or humorous circumstances,” he began, glancing between you and the ground. “It’s a common trope used in a lot of films and television shows, typically in rom coms.”

When he finished you couldn’t help, but wonder what exactly he was getting at. Why out of all things he could’ve brought up was he bringing up this oddly specific movie trope? Was there some sort of contextual evidence behind it that you’d missed? Had you somehow lost a part of your memory mid sentence because you were too busy thinking about his stupid sweater? 

You looked at him oddly, watching as let out another soft laugh.

“Sorry, that was weird. I—I was just thinking about how I asked you if you were cold and that if you would’ve said yes I could’ve given you my cardigan, which is already pretty cheesy, which made me think of other cheesy things, which made me think—“

“Hey, Spencer?” 

“Yeah?” 

You held back a smile as you looked him up and down. By now both of you had stopped moving, causing the sudden chill down your spine to return with a vengeance. 

_“I’m cold.”_


End file.
